Simple(?) Overclocking Question

[DrewTaylor]

So I wanted to do a build on and MSI Gaming ATX LGA1151 Mobo with a B150 chipset. I was leaning towards an intel i5-6500 CPU because I wanted a quad-core for more processing power for sandbox gaming. As I am sure most of you are aware, the i5-6500 does not have hyperthreading, but still boasts a decent 3.2GHZ core clock.

 

As far as I know, the i5-6500 can be overclocked, but I keep reading that the B150 mobos cannot be overclocked by conventional means (or at all). 

 

Since this is my first build, I won't jump right into OCing, but I wanted to have the option to do so later on once I get a tad more experienced. I was wondering if this was an issue that can be fixed by an update to bios down the road, or if I should just invest in another mobo with a different chipset. I found some Z170s in the same price point.

 

So any ideas? Should I invest in the Z170 and just get another processor that has hyperthreading? Or, should I just stick with more cores without hyperthreading, and just use the core clock on the b150?

[desertcomputer]

If you use base clock overclocking on non K chip you will lose IGPU and temperature monitoring. 

[tarfeef101]

4 minutes ago, DrewTaylor said:

So I wanted to do a build on and MSI Gaming ATX LGA1151 Mobo with a B150 chipset. I was leaning towards an intel i5-6500 CPU because I wanted a quad-core for more processing power for sandbox gaming. As I am sure most of you are aware, the i5-6500 does not have hyperthreading, but still boasts a decent 3.2GHZ core clock.

 

As far as I know, the i5-6500 can be overclocked, but I keep reading that the B150 mobos cannot be overclocked by conventional means (or at all). 

 

Since this is my first build, I won't jump right into OCing, but I wanted to have the option to do so later on once I get a tad more experienced. I was wondering if this was an issue that can be fixed by an update to bios down the road, or if I should just invest in another mobo with a different chipset. I found some Z170s in the same price point.

 

So any ideas? Should I invest in the Z170 and just get another processor that has hyperthreading? Or, should I just stick with more cores without hyperthreading, and just use the core clock on the b150?

If you get a locked CPU, you have 2 options:

• get a chipset that doesn't allow OCing, and when you upgrade get a new board
• get a chipset that DOES allow OCing, and when you upgrade you can keep your board

This is because intel has unfortunately locked down the means by which you could get significant overclocks with locked chips. So unfortunately, even with a Z170 board, you're unlikely to be able to OC your chip a bit, if at all.

 

As for what CPU to get, I'd get either an i5 or i7, depending on your needs. If you're only gaming, you don't need more than an i5. A locked CPU will perform just fine for the vast majority of games (of course it could bottleneck to Titan XPs, but I doubt that is what you're getting). If you want to overclock, even later, I'd spend the extra 20 bucks on the K-series chip because it is worth it in the long run

[DrewTaylor]

3 minutes ago, tarfeef101 said:

If you get a locked CPU, you have 2 options:

• get a chipset that doesn't allow OCing, and when you upgrade get a new board
• get a chipset that DOES allow OCing, and when you upgrade you can keep your board

This is because intel has unfortunately locked down the means by which you could get significant overclocks with locked chips. So unfortunately, even with a Z170 board, you're unlikely to be able to OC your chip a bit, if at all.

 

As for what CPU to get, I'd get either an i5 or i7, depending on your needs. If you're only gaming, you don't need more than an i5. A locked CPU will perform just fine for the vast majority of games (of course it could bottleneck to Titan XPs, but I doubt that is what you're getting). If you want to overclock, even later, I'd spend the extra 20 bucks on the K-series chip because it is worth it in the long run

So would you suggest going with the z170 and just getting another CPU that is unlocked and hyperthreaded?

 

I'm going to use a GTX 1050 Ti for now. Seemed like a decent GPU for the money. Also, no external power needed.

[DrewTaylor]

15 minutes ago, MrUnknownEMC said:

If you use base clock overclocking on non K chip you will lose IGPU and temperature monitoring. 

Will I be using IGPU much for gaming? I was going to use a GTX 1050Ti for my GPU. 

[grimreeper132]

17 minutes ago, DrewTaylor said:

Will I be using IGPU much for gaming? I was going to use a GTX 1050Ti for my GPU. 

no you won't need the IGPU to game, cause you have the 1050Ti

[tarfeef101]

6 hours ago, DrewTaylor said:

So would you suggest going with the z170 and just getting another CPU that is unlocked and hyperthreaded?

 

I'm going to use a GTX 1050 Ti for now. Seemed like a decent GPU for the money. Also, no external power needed.

No, I would not suggest getting an unlocked and hyperthreaded CPU. I'd recommend getting an unlocked non-hyperthreaded CPU (i5-6600K or i5-7600K). I'd also go with a Z270 platform if you can. Not much more expensive (if at all), but a lot of nice features.

6 hours ago, DrewTaylor said:

Will I be using IGPU much for gaming? I was going to use a GTX 1050Ti for my GPU. 

Still doesn't change that intel fixed the loopholes that allowed people to overclock the locked CPUs.

[DrewTaylor]

Well I was going to buy a used CPU. Or was the overclock loophole taken away externally?

[Moglakos]

7 hours ago, DrewTaylor said:

So I wanted to do a build on and MSI Gaming ATX LGA1151 Mobo with a B150 chipset. I was leaning towards an intel i5-6500 CPU because I wanted a quad-core for more processing power for sandbox gaming. As I am sure most of you are aware, the i5-6500 does not have hyperthreading, but still boasts a decent 3.2GHZ core clock.

 

As far as I know, the i5-6500 can be overclocked, but I keep reading that the B150 mobos cannot be overclocked by conventional means (or at all). 

 

Since this is my first build, I won't jump right into OCing, but I wanted to have the option to do so later on once I get a tad more experienced. I was wondering if this was an issue that can be fixed by an update to bios down the road, or if I should just invest in another mobo with a different chipset. I found some Z170s in the same price point.

 

So any ideas? Should I invest in the Z170 and just get another processor that has hyperthreading? Or, should I just stick with more cores without hyperthreading, and just use the core clock on the b150?

What are you going to do with your system??? Gaming, web browsing, streaming, editing?

[faziten]

1 hour ago, DrewTaylor said:

Well I was going to buy a used CPU. Or was the overclock loophole taken away externally?

It was a microcode update. Some motherboards (asrock mostly) didn't update the BIOS on most of their "old" units. So if you could find a batch with an early bios version you could indeed OC the non Oceable CPU. 

Greg from Science Studio YouTube Channel did two videos on how to OC non K chips on some overclocking boards. Trying to do so on non OC chips is rather impossible and undesirable since their VRM is less capable and less refrigerated... OCing is quite the stability challenge, having those two fail points will be a headache. 

 

This is the plausible path to OC non K Skylake CPUs:

Get an early z170 board with an unpatched out of the box BIOS and do the OC. (Beware, ram should support high speeds for painless overclocking, remember baseclock also affects ram speeds and you will be stuck with 125 strap). Later on you will  need to upgrade the BIOS so it adds support for Kaby. 

The overclocking of this CPUs is tricky, some of them fail miserably if paired with a 2800Mhz RAM kit, others fail with 2666Mhz kit. So get to know before you buy this PC parts. It's a long shot you are attempting to perform. Purchase a particular board with a particular bios / bios hack available and use it under a particular OS. AFAIK windows 10 will induce failure if a non K CPU is detected to be operating beyond stock speeds. (Scumbag Intel/Microsoft). 

 

[DrewTaylor]

5 hours ago, faziten said:

It was a microcode update. Some motherboards (asrock mostly) didn't update the BIOS on most of their "old" units. So if you could find a batch with an early bios version you could indeed OC the non Oceable CPU. 

Greg from Science Studio YouTube Channel did two videos on how to OC non K chips on some overclocking boards. Trying to do so on non OC chips is rather impossible and undesirable since their VRM is less capable and less refrigerated... OCing is quite the stability challenge, having those two fail points will be a headache. 

 

This is the plausible path to OC non K Skylake CPUs:

Get an early z170 board with an unpatched out of the box BIOS and do the OC. (Beware, ram should support high speeds for painless overclocking, remember baseclock also affects ram speeds and you will be stuck with 125 strap). Later on you will  need to upgrade the BIOS so it adds support for Kaby. 

The overclocking of this CPUs is tricky, some of them fail miserably if paired with a 2800Mhz RAM kit, others fail with 2666Mhz kit. So get to know before you buy this PC parts. It's a long shot you are attempting to perform. Purchase a particular board with a particular bios / bios hack available and use it under a particular OS. AFAIK windows 10 will induce failure if a non K CPU is detected to be operating beyond stock speeds. (Scumbag Intel/Microsoft). 

 

I was actually looking more at the MSI Krait 3X Gaming ATX LGA1151 with the Z170A chipset.

 

Buuut, what I am hearing is that I either splurge a little more on an i5-6600k, or I don't OC. I was made aware by another user that the roundabout way to overclock a locked CPU on a Z170 would take away temp monitoring.. I don't think it's a great idea for me to try OCing without a temp monitor, because I am inexperienced and I don't want to fry my CPU.

 

Would 3.2GHz be enough to run games like GTAV with a decent frame rate and high graphical frame rate? I mean, the turbo clock on the 6500 is 3.6GHz. 

 

When I say decent, I mean no lower than 40FPS. Not that console garbage 20-30FPS with medium detail. If I wanted that, I might as well buy a console. 

[DrewTaylor]

7 hours ago, Moglakos said:

What are you going to do with your system??? Gaming, web browsing, streaming, editing?

I am a big sandbox player (Skyrim SE, Fallout 4, GTAV). I also want to get into streaming a little bit, but I'm not too serious about it as of now. I do record music as well, and I would like to have decent editing capabilities, but it doesn't have to be professional studio quality. It's more of a hobby.

 

What I really want to know is if I can play the sandbox games aforementioned without dropping below 40FPS outdoors and high to some ultra settings and a longer draw distance. I know it's a tall order, since a lot of those games are heavily CPU bound. I am also going to have 16GB of 2400 DDR4 memory, if that helps much.